I spent last week at Moravian Falls in North Carolina – An example to us in Jamaica of the potential of Religious Tourism. Rick Joyner’s Morning Star Church having purchased property where the early Moravians had purportedly invested 100 consecutive years in an unbroken chain of 24/7 prayer. Joyner along with others boosted the visitor count of the district and also managed within 5 years to almost double the value of local real estate through frequent use of Christian Media to emphasize the spiritual value of such a legacy.
Times are increasingly unstable. Nearby Charlotte, North Carolina was one of the few places in the US largely unaffected by the last recession. Christians in retirement are returning to their roots and heading for the hills for refuge in droves. Moravian Falls is far from a holy mecca for 21st Century believers, but the potential is there, as Rick seems to be aware. Morning Star’s Prayer Mountain at Moravian Falls is fast becoming a Believer’s Beverly Hills…and the culture of spiritualty associated with the place is the drawing card.
Having my expectations pumped up high by the hype, seeing both the falls and the cabin beside it we had booked, I was somewhat underwhelmed. We had a great time, the setting was impeccable, and I did experience Divine Presence on prayer mountain, but that is not untypical for me. I generally find sanctuary in Nature….wherever I am. But I couldn’t help compare the experience there with my recent fast in Jamaica’s Blue Mountains or think of the places of religious, historic and geographic interest in the island that have offered me a far more significant, satisfying and centering experience.
Writing from Virginia Beach the city of CBN’s HQ, I cant help but recall the same feeling of being similarly underwhelmed a few years back when visiting TBN studios on the West Coast. Both are Christian Networks I have followed from my teenage years and both exert considerable influence on the thought and value systems of their foreign viewership, as with Hollywood for secular culture.
If only the Jamaican spirit of creativity was not so stifled by the need to slavishly imitate North Atlantic patterns, a thing of focus in our recent Caribbean Christian conversation. In that conversation both our lack of knowledge of and appreciation for our own historic / religious cultural legacy, particularly related to that period of widescale local church planting and Religious revival in the latter part of the 19th century, during the early Post-Emancipation period and establishment of our first zones of refuge and freedom – Free Villages such as Slygoville etc was particularly bemoaned…and explained.
We could do so much with what we already have in our hands, without the need to stretch for foreign assistance. And we have pioneers who can be studied and perhaps even consulted – e.g. Butch Stewart seems to have a fair idea on how to successfully use international media to create a local movement. What both Jamaican and American church share, in our various stages of excellence, expression and effectiveness is, by and large, a prevailing attitude and atmosphere of sectarianism.
As stated in Christian Unity, the present prevailing practice of our faith lacks a comparatively potent unifying symbol as is the Holy Mecca of Islam. Consequently, we now stand much closer to the time of global religious eclipse that might, in its wake, perhaps force these and similar issues into centrality – the need to reexamine our perspective, reevaluate our legacy and release a creative spirit in addressing our problems and so, finding our place and purpose in the world.
YeKengalé 